The Family That Plays Together, Stays Together
by AndiKaneUnderwood
Summary: (Justice League Movie 2018) The families they'd been born to where good, but the families they'd made where better.


The Family That Plays Together, Stays Together

By: AndiKaneUnderwood

 **I got Justice League for Easter and this was the result. It was _really_ good, I couldn't help myself. I just had to write something for it.**

No one was quite sure when it happened, when they started acting more like a family rather than a team, but it happened and each of the members of the new Justice League could tell you when they first noticed.

 _Justice League~DC~Justice League~DC_

 _Diana:_

Diana had always been very fond of the five of her teammates. She loved each and every one of them like they were her sisters back on Themyscira or her first love, Steve.

She'd always known that they were good and amazing people.

She loved spending time with them.

One day, she'd been coming back in from a night protecting a small family from a thief and she noticed Barry laying on the couch. Much like his metabolism and his appetite, Barry's sleep schedule had been re-figured to account for all the energy he now burned up on a daily basis. He'd clearly fallen asleep studying for his classes, his book was still open on his chest.

Diana smiled warmly, then set down her shield and sword, to be sharpened and polished and put away later. She pulled the blanket that Bruce kept on the back of the chair and set it over her arm. Diana picked up the book on criminology and marked the page Barry had stopped on, closing it and setting it gently on the table. Then she took the blanket from her arm and spread it out, draping it over the youngest of her team.

Barry made a contented noise and curled up tighter, his feet sticking out from under the blankets. Diana chuckled, fixed the blanket, and brushed back Barry's bangs. "Sleep well, child of the Speed Force."

Barry's eyes slitted open for a moment, he smiled at Diana, then sleep pulled him back under and he was gone again.

Diana smiled, more fondly, much like a mother would smile at her child, and pressed a kiss to the young man's forehead. "Sweet dreams, Barry." she murmured.

Then Diana stood and picked up her sword and shield, leaving the room and wondering when she'd begun to think of the team as her family.

Then she smiled to herself and thought that it had to have been that way since they first built the Hall of Justice and began staying there overnight.

 _Justice League~DC~Justice League~DC_

 _Bruce:_

Bruce knew that in his line of work, having friends who would have your back was extremely important, but having something to help keep your humanity was better.

Bruce had done well in keeping his sanity and humanity thus far, but in meeting his teammates, in meeting Barry and Victor and Arthur and Clark and Diana, he knew that he'd found something to anchor him to the world of human. To anchor his humanity to his own self.

And that was why he usually took one of the younger two with him when he went on patrols with expectations of it going bad.

Bruce could get scary and inhumane when he was on patrol and while that was something he could handle by himself, and he certainly didn't mind doing it, he didn't want the youngest of his team to see what a monster he could be.

That night, it was Victor, the camouflage ring he wore to hide his outside appearance (and by default his identity) deactivated.

"So, is it always this quiet on patrols? I'm almost always asleep before you go out." Victor asked.

"It's better than a loud night. A quiet night is a crime free night." Bruce replied.

Just then a siren caught their attention and Batman breathed out.

Victor looked around, likely looking at something only he could see, reading a police report scanned directly to his processor. "Assault on police officer, domestic violence, arsonist. Ready to go?"

Bruce chuckled lowly. "Let's get him."

When they'd caught the man in question, he was halfway through another swing of his belt on a little African-American boy's back.

Bruce's eyes widened behind his cowl at that idea that this man would beat a child so blatantly in front of others. His eyes narrowed on the man beating the little boy and for a second it was Cyborg grunting in pain as his cybernetic leg reattached itself instead.

Bruce got angry, red blooming over his vision and immediately, without a plan or even a word to Victor about it, Bruce jumped into the fight, stepping in front of the African-American child and catching the belt in his hand.

"Who the Hell are you?" asked the man and Bruce could _smell_ the booze on his breath and in his clothes and everything about this man just screamed- _I'm an alcoholic_ \- and Bruce growled low in his throat.

"You like picking on kids?" Bruce snarled. "You like hitting them?"

"What the fuck are you talking about, man?" the man asked, like he hadn't just been beating the poor kid to Hell and back.

"Let's see how you like it, punk." Bruce growled, minding his language because he'd never swear in front of anyone under the age of twelve.

Bruce lifted the belt in his hand and that's when he heard it.

"Yo, Bats. Hey, Batman, calm down. There's still kids here, man!" Victor shouted and Bruce came back to himself just long enough to remember the kid he had gotten so angry for and he turned away. "Another time, then."

The man still looked confused and angry and Victor came up behind the guy and punched him, easily putting him in handcuffs and pulling him over his shoulders.

"We're very sorry this happened, ma'am," Victor began to tell the woman, but Batman was more interested in the little boy.

"You alright, kid?" Batman asked, kneeling down to help the kid into a better position. "Oh, those look bad. You'll need to go to the Gotham hospital. Send the bill to Bruce Wayne. He'll cover it." The kid looked up at him with wide eyes and nodded.

"Thank you for saving me, Mr. Batman." the kid grinned and Bruce's heart softened just a little.

Bruce offered a smile back, despite how out of place it may have looked. He pulled out a card and a pen from his utility belt. He wrote the personal line for the BatCave. "Here, take this. If he ever gives you any more problems, you call me. I'll come back and save you again." he promised.

Bruce went back home that night wondering about the images that had flickered through his mind when he saw that kid.

Then he decided it didn't really matter. It was how he thought now and he wasn't willing to stop it.

 _Justice League~DC~Justice League~DC_

 _Clark:_

To say Clark thought of the five of his teammates as _friends_ was a massive understatement. From the moment he looked up from his shift one day and saw Diana coming in with a small bag and a coffee cup he knew _exactly_ what they were to him.

"Diana." he greeted her with a smile and a kiss to her cheek. "It's great to see you."

"Hello, Clark." Diana smiled and handed Clark the coffee cup. "I thought you could use the break, you've been so tired recently."

"Thank you so much, following these syndicates is very busy work." Clark replied, sipping the coffee and looked at Diana over the rim of the cup.

Diana smiled at him and Clark's day got much better.

Clark looked down and then back up, noticing Diana smiling at him and he was struck by the realization that he may have a _biological_ family, but he also had his _chosen_ family.

And he wouldn't trade them for the world.

So, after they'd finished chatting and Diana left, Clark smiled as he continued his work.

What an amazing feeling to have.

 _Justice League~DC~Justice League~DC_

 _Arthur:_

Arthur first noticed it long before any of the others and once he did, he kind of panicked and flung himself back into the ocean.

No one saw him for days.

Then, after nearly a month under the waves, he got a distress call from Clark saying he needed some help

Arthur was immediately out of the ocean and running to Clark's signal.

He thought Barry would be jealous of the speed he'd gotten there with, but probably not.

Clark was busy, busy fighting off two of what Arthur could only think of as "fire demons".

There where huge beings made entirely of fire and coal and lava and Arthur was impressed by their size.

"Superman, I'm here! Need a hand?" Arthur called to the ocean and swept one of the fire demons away.

Clark flashed a brief smile at Arthur, then froze the other fire demon and destroyed it with a single punch.

Arthur and Clark looked at the wreckage, then at each other, and with twin nods of respect, Arthur finally accepted that even though they were annoying and very much so Human (or space Human/immortal goddess from an island in the middle of the sea/half robot), they were still his and he would die protecting them.

That's what family's for, right?

 _Justice League~DC~Justice League~DC_

 _Victor:_

In a small way, Victor had always known they were family. But, he didn't realize it until he threw himself out of a window on a mission one day and Arthur Curry, better known as the Aquaman, caught him before he could crash to pieces in the ground.

The mission was supposed to have been simple.

Get in, get some information, get out, deliver said information, end mission, and go home.

Unfortunately, nothing is ever so simple when Victor or his team where involved.

Especially Arthur.

Because Arthur is brash and brazen and so, so loud that it created feedback on Victor's ears when there should be none, but Arthur is also kind and gentle and sometimes, he's nice.

Victor's mission had gone all wrong and Arthur came in to save him. Victor's mission had been compromised by the person he was supposed to receive the information from.

A double agent.

Hell, a triple agent.

Who cared right now? Certainly not Victor.

Victor ran fast and hard, ducking bullets when he had to and praying that none of the bullets he was currently dodging hit him. He looked around and spotted a window. Veering towards it, Victor hoped against hope that he wouldn't get himself killed (again).

The crash of the window was the only thing Victor registered before he was falling through the air, arms flailing like he was scared, but he wasn't.

Wasn't he supposed to be scared?

Victor's brain told him not to worry about it because the ground was going to be coming up fast and he'd need to think of a way to not get himself killed by smashing into it at, Victor checked his processors, 86 miles per hour.

Victor's brain whirred and spun while it tried to figure out how to land safely on the ground and _not_ die.

It was still working on that problem when Victor heard a shout and was suddenly crashed into from behind.

"Hey!" he yelped, flailing again.

"Settle down, kid, or you'll make me drop you and then you'll _actually_ get yourself killed."

 _"Arthur?"_ Victor looked up in surprise and too his udder amazement, there was the King of the Ocean himself, flying on his trident with his long hair whipping around behind him.

"I was in the neighborhood and thought you could use the help," Arthur laughed, setting Victor down gently.

Victor smiled, looking up at the man he respected and found himself being filled with a sense of, not pride, but thankfulness and love that he'd rarely felt for anything besides his former girlfriend, Karen, his parents, and football.

"Thanks, man. You really saved my ass today." Victor chuckled.

"What was I supposed to do, let you 'faceplant', ("that was a word he'd learned from Barry after the teenager learned he didn't know modern slang,") against the concrete?" Arthur crossed his arms and smirked. "No way man."

Victor nodded.

Arthur smiled and Victor found himself wondering if _this_ was what family meant. Saving each other and helping each other when they needed it most. Victor smiled to himself that night as his computerized brain spun its motors down to sleep and thought, _yeah, that's definitely what family means_.

 _Justice League~DC~Justice League~DC_

 _Barry:_

Barry had a family before his mother died and his father was dragged off to jail. He had a big brother, but he hadn't seen him in _years_ so Barry didn't even know if Rudolf was still _alive_. Barry had been on the move for so long, had been running for so long, he'd almost forgotten what having a family (and being the baby of it) felt like. He was reminded, rather harshly, one night after a mission went bad.

Barry was on Civilian Duty, keeping the people back and finding the people who hadn't made it out.

It was usually like this on the big mission that required all of the Justice League. Barry didn't mind, he didn't like fighting much anyway and he was happy that the rest of his friends (he was still hesitant to call them that) would let him just go help the Civilians when he wasn't crucial to the mission.

His favorite thing to do when he wasn't on Civilian Duty, was help Batman. Now, don't get him wrong, Batman was still scary and _extremely_ terrifying, but only when he was angry. Barry liked helping Batman because Batman was acutely aware of _every single one_ of Barry's needs at least _five minutes_ before Barry himself was aware of them.

Batman would always stop and remind Barry to eat something when he could, even going so far as to pull out protein/energy bars from his utility belt and shove them at the teenage speedster with a gruff, " _Eat_ ". The second the fights where well and truly over, Batman would even buy Barry dinner (pizza or Chinese, Barry's favorites). Barry would insist that it wasn't necessary, but Batman would give him that _look_ and Barry would shut up because Batman was buying him _food_ and he wasn't about to refuse. Another thing was that Batman just seemed to have this sixth sense of knowing when Barry tripped over his own clumsy feet while running up a wall and was always there within seconds to catch him.

Barry had been on his own for so long, it was nice to know that he had someone watching his back, even if only for a short time.

Batman called for Barry over the Comms, breaking the speedster from his thoughts. " _Flash, report._ " the Dark Knight said gruffly.

"All citizens are safe, I've done a full run of the building. There's no one else here." Flash reported with a proud half-smile.

" _Good. I need you to come to my location as fast as possible, there's a bomb you need to run out of here once I get done removing the core._ "

"Be there in a _flash_." Flash laughed as his own joke, then was gone in a burst of lightning and sparks.

He easily found the Caped Crusader and skidded to a stop as time righted itself around him.

"Hey." he waved.

"Hey." Batman returned, not flinching at the sudden appearance of the speedster.

"I've been meaning to ask." Flash said, watching as Batman worked.

"Yeah?"

(That was another thing, Bruce never minded the questions. No matter how many Barry asked or how fast he asked them, Bruce would patiently answer every single one, even if he had to ask Barry to repeat one or two.)

"Why don't you flinch? Like, I get you're the Batman and all, but there has to have been a time when you did flinch at sudden appearances or noises, right?" Flash crouched down next to Batman, never taking his eyes off the bomb. The millisecond Bruce was done, that thing was getting swept up and rushed out to be thrown into the nearest ocean.

"I have a kid who likes to disappear and appear randomly, something he loves to do iss scare the Holy Hell out of people with his disappearing act," Batman's mouth turned up at the corners. "He used to scare the Hell out of me when he turned up suddenly. After a while, I got used to it and it didn't so much as startle me anymore."

"What happened to the kid? Is he in Gotham still?" Flash questioned curiously.

"He's about your age now, a little older," Batman commented offhandedly, which soothed Flash's worries that the kid hadn't made it, "he and I had a fight and he ran off, formed a team of his own. We made up, he came back. When he turned nineteen, he moved to Bludhaven and is now known as Nightwing. You may have heard of him before them as Robin." Batman chuckled, then his face got serious. "Alright, I'm done, get it out of here."

The world around the teenage hero blurred and slowed as Flash slipped into the Speed Force. He grabbed the bomb, noting the timer had stopped at one minute, sixteen seconds.

Flash zipped out of the building and hurried as fast as he could to the West Coast and the Pacific Ocean. Once he'd gotten there, which took all of a millisecond, he threw the bomb as hard as he could into the water and watched it explode, sending a spray of water into the air. Barry applauded like it was a professional dancer, then raced for the building he'd left Batman. When he got there, he found Bruce patiently waiting for his return. Barry smiled as he skidded to a stop. "The fish in the Pacific won't appreciate it, but the bomb's settling in nicely."

Bruce nodded. "Good. Let's find the others and get out of here. Do some recon, won't you?"

Barry grinned and raced off, finding the rest of the team on the roof. He bolted back down to Bruce. "They're on the roof."

"Any more hostiles?"

"None that I could see."

Bruce nodded. "Alright, let's go home."

They started heading to the roof. Unfortunately, Bruce didn't notice one thing in time to stop it. Namely the man hiding behind the door Barry was just about to go through.

It all happened fast, but it seemed in slow motion to Barry. The man whipped out from behind the door and caught both of the heroes off guard. The knife he held went right through Barry's leg and the projectile Batman threw went right into the man's hand. Then Batman was on the minion burning with rage and Barry was on the ground crying out in pain.

It was a full twenty seconds before Batman was at Barry's side, picking him up and running to the BatJet.

(Bruce protested the name, but Barry refused to stop calling it that.)

Barry was in and out of lucidity. One second, he was being carried through tunnels, the next he was laying on the BatJet's uncomfortable seats and wondering how the Hell he'd gotten there.

He passed out somewhere around when the knife was pulled from his leg and alcohol was poured over the wound, but he did remember the gruff voice of the Bat soothing his mind and telling him it would all be okay.

And if that wasn't what family was for, then Barry didn't know what was.

What was that old saying?

The family that plays together, stays together? As Barry plunged into unconsciousness an unnoticeable smile flickered across his face. This family was just as good, if not better, than any of his old ones.


End file.
